A Face from the Past prologue
by Little Si
Summary: The Prologue to my soon-to-come 6 hour real time series - 1998. Jack and his team are on a dangerous mission in Colombia to rescue 3 US hostages......


Columbia, 1998: 11:55pm  
  
Jack Bauer remained silent as he lay on his front, listening to the jungle around him. To his left was the radio operator: Lance Sutton. He'd been with the team for 5 years and Jack trusted him with his life, he was extremely competent and always stayed focused on the mission. Another few meters from him was Dean Slater, lead scout and a top-class sniper. Jack had recruited him for the team a few months ago and this was their first real mission together. The 26 year old had proved himself on numerous training exercises but they can never truly replicate the realities of a mission such as this one. The rest of the 6 man team consisted of Chris Hammond, Alex Wilford and John Cross. Their objective was a simple search and rescue mission but Jack knew to be prepared for the worst. They had had very little time to prepare and their intel was sketchy at best. Besides, the enemy they were going up against was extremely deadly. A bunch of guerillas had grabbed hold of a Fox news crew over 2 and a half weeks ago, this particular group were known to be both irrational and violent. Jack doubted that the crew was still alive but they had to be sure. One member of the group was arrested a week ago and interrogated for over 24 hours. Finally, he cracked and gave up the location of the 3 man crew consisting of a female reporter, just 22 years of age, and two men: 35 and 40. Right now, Jack had his eye firmly trained on the small hut in front of him, located in a small clearing amongst the mass of trees and shrubbery. There were a couple of trucks outside and two men standing guard, both carrying AK-47's. They were smoking and laughing, obviously not concerned about potential attacks. Jack didn't mind, if they caught these guys with their pants down it'd go a lot better for them. The problem was Jack had no idea how many more of these guys there were inside. He needed to do a recce before the team made a move.  
  
Jack signaled to Dean, and the two of them began to move down towards the river adjacent to the hut. The other men stayed put, ready to provide back up if the shit hit the fan. As Jack advanced forward slowly on his hands and knees, making as little noise as possible, he suddenly caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye. Someone was making his way clumsily through the trees, and whoever it was was armed. Jack could see Dean ahead of him; he'd heard it too. The men waited. The footsteps came closer. As the figure passed in front of him, Jack quickly reached out, placing his hand over his mouth to prevent him from screaming, and in the same fluid movement, placing a knife to the man's throat. He dragged him down to the ground and whispered for him to be quiet and drop the gun. The man, clearly terrified, complied. It was one of the guerillas, obviously a lone sentry. Jack asked how many men were on site. The frightened sentry struggled to speak, eventually mumbling 8. So, if he was telling the truth there were another 6 guys inside the hut. Jack asked about the condition of the hostages but the sentry had started to regain his confidence and began to curse Jack. Jack tried to keep him quiet but the guerilla began struggling wildly. Jack calmly took out his pistol and, using the butt, knocked the sentry unconscious. He took the man's gun, and signaled for Alex to restrain him. He then crawled over to Dean and told him that there were around 8 men on-site which plus the hostages meant 11 bodies to deal with. It wouldn't be a problem; his men were trained to deal with numbers twice that size. Jack checked his wristwatch: midnight. They were scheduled to attack at 12:15 and get the hostages to the extraction point for 12:30 where a helo would take them to safety, that's if the hostages were still breathing.  
  
By 12:07am, Jack and Dean had arrived at the riverbank and had a clear view of the hut and both guards. It was dark but they could still make out movement in the windows of the small building. Then, they heard a woman scream. Jack's first instinct was to rush in now but he refrained. If they moved without gathering all the information they could, the whole mission could go out the window. Suddenly, one of the men from the news crew was dragged into the open, his hands tied behind his back! The guards began to kick and torment him; he crawled into a ball, screaming for mercy while trying to protect himself. The one who had brought him out, held a half- drunk bottle of alcohol in one hand and another AK in the other. He was clearly drunk. Dean readied his sniper rifle but Jack ordered him to stand down for now. One of the guards stopped what he was doing and made his way to the back of one of the trucks, a big grin on his face. This wasn't good. Jack couldn't stand to watch what was happening but knew better than to let his emotions take over.  
  
Just then, his earpiece crackled, it was the operations centre. They wanted a situation report. Jack explained where he was and that he was ready to move in. Their reply came as a total shock. Instead of telling him to proceed as ordered, Jack was told to stand down immediately and scrap the mission. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Apparently, command had received some new intel that had a direct impact on the operation and they didn't trust Jack's men with it. Jack ordered them to tell him what it was; these people would be dead if they waited around much longer! They had to go in now. The command centre was adamant. Jack watched as the male hostage continued to be beaten viciously. He couldn't leave these people behind. "Sorry sir, can't do it."  
  
Jack radioed the rest of his men and ordered them to flank the hut from both sides, they were getting these hostages. Dean asked what command had said but Jack simply told him to get ready. It was now 12:13 and as they waited for the rest of the team to get in position the guard re-emerged from behind the truck. In his hand was a can of petrol! Jack knew what was coming. The three guerillas began to shower their hostage with the stuff, still kicking him. Once the can was empty, the same guard produced a Zippo lighter, waving it at the screaming hostage. He was terrified, these men were going to kill him, this was it. He continued to beg for mercy but to no avail, the men just laughed in his face. Jack couldn't wait any longer. He ordered Slater to take them out and raised his M16 training it on the guards. He radioed his men once again to check their positions. They were close. Once he opened fire, they were to storm the hut, he didn't like doing it this way, going ahead with a limited amount of intelligence was risky for any mission. They still had no idea about the number of hostiles inside, where the hostages were, or even how many rooms would have to be cleared. All that was known to him was that these guerillas were about to burn an innocent man alive right in front of him, and he was not going to stand by and let that happen. His earpiece crackled again. "We're in position sir." Jack nodded at Slater who had Zippo man squarely in his sights. He put his finger on the trigger...and squeezed. The bullet went straight through the guard's neck causing him to drop the lighter and fall to the floor. He obviously tried to scream but all that came out was a strange gargling sound. Before the other two men could react, Slater had dropped the remaining guard and Jack fired three short silenced bursts into the last man. Jack ran for the hut, quickly followed by Slater. They could hear panicked shouts coming from inside as they drew nearer.....  
  
Columbia 1998: 12:29am  
  
Jack's eyes snapped open; he was lying in the dirt, covered in shrapnel. Ahead, he could see the flaming hut; the sounds of bullets hitting flesh and frenzied shrieks still pierced the air. Jack tried to lift his head, he knew he was injured. The M16 lay just out of his reach. He looked down at his leg; a sharp piece of wood was lodged in his thigh. Jack pulled at it, blood from his leg seeping onto his hands. He slowly pulled out the wood, not being able to hold back a cry of pain. As he moved up to his knees, he began to focus and recall everything that had just happened over the last 14 minutes......  
  
12:15. Jack and Dean burst into the hut, they spotted 3 men immediately in front of them and opened fire. The guerilla's let out short, sharp screams before they hit the floor. Jack tried to get his bearings. To his left were 2 doorways, and another lay ahead. Dean was already on his way to the first door. He burst through it in an instant, hurling a flashbang against the far wall. It went off as a panicked guerilla leapt up from behind a tatty old sofa in the corner. Dean fired two quick shots into the man's mouth before he could get a shot off. By now Jack had already cleared the second room. Together, they headed for the third; if the sentry had been honest there should be only one hostile left to deal with. Somehow Jack knew that wasn't likely, he had a bad feeling about this mission. Just as this thought entered his head a series of bullets ripped through the wall to his right, narrowly missing him and Dean as they dived to the floor. Yet again they heard the woman scream followed by angry shouting, they had to get these hostages out now. One man leapt into the opening of the doorway directly opposite Jack and Dean with a pump-action shotgun in hand. Jack aimed quickly and pulled the trigger, the first burst hit the man in the knees. As he fell, he fired one random shot into the ceiling. Jack quickly returned fire into his chest. He and Dean were on their feet in seconds and into the next room, Jack throwing a flashbang in ahead of him. As soon as they heard it detonate, they began shouting at the top of their voices hoping to scare the shit out of whoever was in there. Huddled in the corner of the room were the female reporter and the body of the other male. A messy gunshot wound in his forehead. There were 4 guerillas in the room, all firing wildly in a drunken haze that was only fuelled by the flashbang. Jack got down on one knee and carefully picked off two of them while they were disorientated. He looked over to see Dean behind cover, still under fire from the remaining two. Jack rolled behind an old, upturned coffee table and quickly put a full magazine into his M16. He popped up from behind cover and fired at the two guerillas. One man went down and Dean hit the other in the shoulder. He fell into the rear wall, struggling to stay standing; Dean finished him off and emptied his last 4 rounds into the man's head. For a moment neither of them moved, adrenaline still pumping. Carefully Jack stood and made his way towards the hostage. She was pressing herself into the corner, whimpering quietly to herself, either too shocked or too knackered to keep screaming. Jack stepped over the body of her colleague and offered his hand. He knew she wouldn't take it. She'd just witnessed 5 men being killed in front of her. Right now, she wasn't going to reach out to anyone. She looked like a small child as Jack stood over her. Slowly, he lowered his weapon and knelt down. "It's OK, no-one's going to hurt you now. My name is Jack Bauer, I'm here to get you out of here." Her eyes were still wide with fear; nothing he said was going to sink in. She began to mutter, almost incoherently, her voice shaking: "They...killed him....I.." "Sssshh, it's okay, I know." Dean watched intently. "Come on Jack, we got 10 minutes to get to that chopper." "Gimme a sec Dean." He tried to appeal to the woman once again. "Come on, you're gonna be alright. You're safe now." Jack took her hand and slowly helped her to stand. She was shaking and still looked shocked. Tears were running down her cheeks and her make-up was smudged. Jack despised these men for putting her in this state. God knows what she went through before he got there. Jack pulled her towards him and Dean stepped forward. "Let me take her." Jack handed her over. As he did, he realized that he was 4 men short. Where were the others? They'd had more than enough time to get here. Jack tried to raise them over the radio. Nothing. Jack didn't want to accept what he knew to be the truth. Their radio was broken, they couldn't talk, they had to stay quiet for some reason, anything would have been better than what he was thinking right now. He tried again. Still nothing. Suddenly: "Oh god...Jack.." It was Alex. "Chris.... John..... they're both dead!" "Jesus Christ! What happened?" "Some guerillas, they jumped us before we could get there...Jack, they're coming to you now...you've gotta get out...save the hostages..." "Alex, I'm gonna get you outta there. Where's Lance?" "I don't know" His voice was weak, he was dieing. Jack put away the radio: "Dammit!" Dean looked concerned. "What happened?" "They were ambushed, we gotta go now. More guerillas are coming this way." Jack checked his watch yet again: 12:21. "We have to contact the OC." "No can do, Lance had the SATCOM." Jack headed for the window and checked the trees around the hut. He could see no sign of movement. "Ok, let's move." BANG! A shot rung out and as Jack spun round, weapon raised, he was struck across the head by a rifle-butt. He hit the ground hard and found himself staring into the eyes of the dead female reporter, frozen in a look of horror and disbelief. Blood spilled outwards from a gunshot wound. Jack looked up, his vision blurred, to see Dean towering above him. "I'm sorry Jack, it was a real pleasure workin' with you. Jack tried to speak. "Dean, you sonofa..." Dean was about to pull the trigger when Lance came bursting into the room, weapon ready. Both men opened fire as Dean dived over to the bullet riddled furniture the guerillas used as cover. Lance called over to Jack. "You alright Jack?" Jack felt his lips move but his voice was slurred and drowned out by the gunshots, he was still a little dizzy. Lance's shots shattered another window behind Dean, giving him a chance to escape. Keeping Lance at bay, Dean leapt through the opening and headed for the tree line. Lance headed over to Jack. "Listen carefully Jack, the team that attacked us in the woods, they weren't guerillas. Whoever these people were they were well trained and professional. No way a bunch of guerillas could have crept up on us like that. They must have been tailing us all night. Besides, I heard one of them talking in Arabic." "But that would mean..." "Someone in the team was carrying a tracking device of some kind. How else could they have stayed on our tail without being close enough to alert us.." Realization hit Jack. "Dean." "Looks like it. Now come on, we've gotta go." "Wait, the other hostage.." "He's dead." Before this could sink in, Lance helped Jack to his feet as an explosion rocked the small building; there was a flash of fire from outside the room. The two men ducked. They could hear more people rushing around outside the hut. Someone had thrown in a grenade. Jack managed to stand and ready his weapon. Lance motioned to the window Jack had been looking through. "They're here, let's go." Jack and Lance broke through as a fire crept into the room, started by the grenade. The hut was coming down around them. Jack and Lance hit the ground running, leaving the flaming hut behind them.  
  
It seemed like an age before they hit the foliage, finally leaving the open ground behind them. Jack didn't look back, he knew the men were on his tail, he could hear them moving and barking orders at each other. He and Lance moved quickly and carefully for another 100 meters into the darkness before turning and hitting the ground, guns at the ready. It was 12:25. 4 minutes to extraction. Jack and Lance waited, breathing heavily. A shadow moved through Jack's line of sight. He fired. Lance followed suit and soon the whole jungle was lit up by gunfire. The next couple of minutes were a blur, bullets flying in every direction. At some point Jack had become separated from Lance but he didn't know when. He knew the extraction point wasn't far and was now determined to reach it in time. The helo would not be waiting around for them. Jack heard something hit the ground next to him, he kept moving. Then, there was an explosion, everything seemed to turn into slow motion and fade into the background. Jack felt the muddy ground against him. Then, everything was enveloped by a pleasant blackness. The gunshot's disappeared to be replaced by total silence. There was now nothing but peace; Jack had been released from the horror. Did he die? Had he been shot? He could swear he could still hear a faint sound of running feet pass by him and what sounded like an Arabic accent. Then, the horror returned. He could hear the gunshots....and his eyes snapped open.  
  
12:29  
  
Jack picked up his M16 and loaded his last full clip. His leg hurt like hell but there was nothing he could do about it. He had one minute to get out. Where the hell was Lance? Jack stood. Then, amidst the gunshots and screams, he heard the sound of a turning rotor blade. The helo, and safety, wasn't far now. But where was Lance? Jack got to his feet, where was the shooting coming from? Lance must still be alive. Jack heard a cry. "Jack!" It was Alex, he was hurt, but managed to make his way over to Jack. "Jack, are you okay?" "Fine, listen, you have to get to the extraction point!" "What about you?" "I've gotta get Lance." "But..." "Don't argue with me, go now, we're running out of time!" "Jack.." "This is a direct order..go now!" Jack took off towards the gunshots.  
  
12:30  
  
Jack felt like he had found hell. It was chaos. He clocked 2 men firing MP5- K's into the jungle, shouting into the darkness. There was no telling how many more there were. Jack took cover behind a fallen tree and opened fire. The two men ducked, shouting some more. Bullets slammed into the tree from another direction. He definitely had more than these guys to worry about. Jack popped up and fired three aimed bursts towards the origin of the gunfire, he heard a scream. He ducked back behind cover as the two others unloaded into the tree. Jack looked to his right and spotted Lance moving quickly through the trees keeping low. He was heading for the extraction point. "Lance!" He couldn't hear. Jack fired back at the two men once more, managing to take one down. His gun clicked empty just as more men came running through the trees. Jack took off on foot in the same direction as Lance.  
  
12:31  
  
They both reached the extraction point within seconds of each other and made a final dash for the helicopter. Jack's leg was screaming for him to stop but he ignored it. The chopper began to lift away from the ground. Alex was inside screaming for them to hurry. Lance finally made it and dived inside. Jack could hear weapon fire following him towards the helo. The men were close. As the helicopter started to pull away, Jack hurled himself into it and lay on the cold metal floor, gasping for air, as the helicopter smoothly turned away from the jungle and the madness, leaving 2 dead colleagues behind and all 3 hostages dead.......  
  
END.  
  
HOPE U LIKED IT!!!!!  
  
STAY TUNED FOR MY NEW 6 PART SERIES! 


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